About the Play:

A Murder Has Been Arranged is a full-length melodrama by Emlyn Williams. If he lives until 40, Sir Charles Jasper will inherit a fortune, but then ghostly happenings occur at his birthday party on the stage of an old theatre. Will a ghost reveal the murderer? A Murder Has Been Arranged is a unique thriller that has playgoers gripping their seats.

A Murder Has Been Arranged features Sir Charles Jasper, an eccentric who has written a book on the occult. He is due to inherit $2 million on the night of his 40th birthday. He plans to celebrate the occasion with a party on the stage of the supposedly haunted St. James' Theater. The merriment is interrupted by his missing nephew Maurice Mullins, who will inherit the fortune if Sir Charles dies before 11pm. Maurice, who claims to be a novelist, encourages his uncle to write what he claims to be a chapter for his new book. It is too late when it dawns on Sir Charles that he is writing a suicide note and he has just drained a deadly drink concocted by the nephew. There is a legend concerning a murder once committed at the St. James' Theater… that the ghost of the murdered woman will one day appear on stage to reveal the murderer. In the third act, the birthday guests employ subtle and ingenious tactics to force Maurice to confess.

A Murder Has Been Arranged premiered in 1930 at the Royal Strand Theatre in London. It then went on an extended national tour. In 1932 it was staged on Broadway and at the Pasadena Playhouse. Since then the play has been mounted by professional theatres, high schools, colleges, and community theatres.

Cast: 5 female, 4 male

What people say:

"...this play, with its screams and ghostly apparitions, remains a fascinating flesh-creeper." — The Guardian (UK)

About the Playwright:

Emlyn Williams (1905-1987) was an acclaimed Welsh writer, director, and actor – and often all three at once. Overall, he produced dozens of plays, but is best known for his stage thrillers and his autobiographical play The Corn Is Green. As an actor, he internationally toured readings from the work of Charles Dickens and Dylan Thomas, as well as appearing in his own plays, countless classic and contemporary productions, and forty-one films. In addition to authoring or co-authoring nineteen screenplays, he wrote, directed, and appeared in the movie The Last Days of Dolwyn, which marked the film debut of his fellow Welshman Richard Burton.